AVA – ‘She can’t sing, she can’t act, she can’t talk. She’s terrific!’
Ava – a unique beauty If Ava had not decided to meet her sister Beatrice in New York in 1941, we might never have heard of Ava Gardner the actress. Beatrice’s husband was a […]
howard hughes
To believe or not to believe?
Scott Bowers at 88 In 2012 a Hollywood man named Scott Bowers wrote a book called Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars’ that was published by the reputable Grove Press. It is not a very well written book, but several gay […]
Studio cover-ups in the early days of Hollywood.
A British actor in the fifties named Steve Hayes probably summed up the studio bosses as well as anyone, not that he said so when he was under contract, of course. To do so would have been career suicide, as well he knew. ‘All these guys were ruthless bastards’, […]
Barbara Payton – what a waste.
One of Hollywood’s truly tragic stories was that of Barbara Payton, a pretty and talented actress who experienced both the highs and lows of life in Tinsel Town. Just sixteen years after starring alongside Gregory Peck in the western feature Only the Valiant (1951) she was dead. Her body was […]
Did you know? Points of interest Pt. 15
Richard Schickel’s biography of director Elia Kazan tells how Marlon Brando was tricked into accepting the role of Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront (1954). Kazan had actor Karl Malden direct a scene featuring a young unknown from the Actors Studio speaking Malloy’s lines, knowing full well that Brando’s competitive […]
Did you know? Points of Interest Pt. 8
At around the time that Errol Flynn was being tried for statutory rape in 1942, a young bisexual actor named Peter Lawford arrived in Hollywood to commence his career on the silver screen with MGM. He soon made friends with another bisexual, Keenan Wynn, the closeted homosexual star Van […]
The Studio System – the Big Five.
For several decades the ‘Big Five’ in Hollywood were MGM, 20th Century Fox, RKO, Paramount and Warner Bros. United Artists had its moments in the sun, as did Columbia, Republic and Universal, but they were not really in the same league as the others. Of the ‘Big Five’ only RKO […]
STEWART GRANGER – A man’s man – mostly.
It is difficult not to admire English actor Stewart Granger. In an era that spawned a generation of actors and actresses ready and willing to do and say whatever their studios demanded of them, and equally unwilling to cross powerful gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons for […]
AVA GARDNER – Far from perfect but drop dead gorgeous.
It all depends on your age group, I suppose, but most guys from mine seem to be in agreement that Ava Gardner was the sexiest woman ever to appear in American movies. Given the likes of Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and a couple of […]
HUMPHREY BOGART – The iconic tough guy.
HUMPHREY BOGART (1899-1957) Humphrey was not born on Christmas Day 1899 as his studio liked to state. At least two 1900 census forms prove it. He was actually born on 23 January 1899, but the Warner Bros publicity department chose to run with the stupid tagline, ‘a guy born on […]